Wise was born in
Roxbury,
Massachusetts, the son of Joseph and Mary (Thompson) Wise. Mary was daughter of Alice Freeman Thompson Parke. He attended the
Roxbury Latin School, in
West Roxbury, Massachusetts, graduating in 1669. He then was admitted to
Harvard College (now Harvard University). After graduating from Harvard in 1673, he began studying
theology, and preached in
Branford,
Connecticut and
Hatfield, Massachusetts. On August 12, 1683, Wise was ordained as the
pastor of the newly organized
Chebacco Parish, a new
parish formed out of Ipswich. In 1688, Wise led Ipswich citizens in a protest against royal governor
Edmund Andros and colonial taxation, after the revocation of the
Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1684 which was superseded by the
Dominion of New England. Andros took a hard-line position to the effect that the colonists had left behind all their rights as Englishmen when they left England. When in 1687 Wise rallied his parishioners to protest and resist taxation, Andros had him arrested, convicted and fined. As an Andros official explained, "Mr. Wise, you have no more privileges Left you then not to be Sold for Slaves.".
Calvin Coolidge referred to him as one of the inspirations for the
Declaration of Independence. John Wise Avenue, a section of
Route 133 in Massachusetts, is named after him.
Liberty ship , launched on June 14, 1942 and scrapped in 1971, was also named after him. == Family ==